Chapter 148: Chapter 17 After the Honeymoon
In the kitchen of the Grande House, Louise was busy doing something on the counter. Because Lola had pushed the schedule forward and Louise had promised to deliver soup to the nun of the Church of God the Son, so Louise stayed at Grande to accompany Zach.
“Is the nun okay?” Although Zach didn’t need lunch, Grande still had old Hank and Great Dane. Neither of them was a small eater, so he also helped in the kitchen.
“Mhm, maybe a little tired recently, just need a few days of rest.” Louise blinked, seeming not sure about what she had just said, “Is that true?”
Zach smiled and put the shredded potato on the counter, picking up another one and continuing, “I hope so. Crowlie shouldn’t be that impatient.”
Louise stirred the spoon in her hand, and she was a little curious about the name that suddenly appeared in her life, “Crowlie, eh. What kind of… Um, person is she?”
Zach seemed to have a little bit of interest. He put the potato in front of him, squinted his eyes, staring at a small dented black spot on the surface of the potato. Holding a small knife, he began to carefully ‘carve’ it, “This is what we also want to find out.”
“Then are we not bothering each other now?” Louise cleverly avoided questions that were still uncertain and asked what was really relevant to the Grande family.
Zach nodded, “Mhm.” A dark spot that did not match the color of the potato’s skin was removed, and the vampire’s superb ‘technique’ did not hurt the potato. Zach smiled with satisfaction, “it is still too early to say anything. We still don’t know each other well, plus the coexistence agreement. We are still not sure how to ‘face’ each other.”
Louise raised her head and glanced at Zach, her pursed lips curled slightly, “So now is your honeymoon period.”
Zach put down the perfect potato, looked at this woman, smiled, and shook his head, “You can say that.”
There was a trace of resentment in Louise’s eyes, “I’m angry.”
Zach looked at Louise with a smile in his eyes, “It is you who want to use this metaphor.”
Louise tilted her head, still keeping her expression, and stopped talking. A gleam of light flashed in Zach’s eyes. In this ray of light, it mostly contained the look of appreciation for Louise.
One night after the two met, Zach admitted that he was a fan of Louise, and he still was. This beautiful woman was always able to keep her balance on the tightrope on the cliff.
She was a human, a very ordinary human who lived in Grande. Although it seemed like she was ‘inquiring’ about the information of the nonhumans in the Grande family, what you actually heard from her tone was like she was complaining about Zach meeting with ‘another woman!’ .
Anyway because of the ‘coexistence agreement’, they had to have this honeymoon. Before Crowlie found the container, it was the best time to suppress her. However, this time was about to pass.
Regarding this, Zach couldn’t do anything about it. He needed an event, or rather, both parties needed an event to progress to the next stage from the honeymoon period.
After lunch, Louise took the packed soup to the Church of God the Son in the west. She planned to stay there for noon, and then went to the cemetery with the priest who would need to preside over the funeral ceremony to meet with Zach, so as not to run back and forth.
The busiest period for moving graves has finally passed. Especially during the period when the church was closed for maintenance, the grave relocating arrangement was much tighter; the Grande Funeral Home could perform four ceremonies a day. However, many more people still lost their patience because of the sudden change and chose cremation instead of burial.
The time Mrs. Quinn chose, was very good; she chose to do it at the end of the busiest period. Although the reporters were very excited, people had been reading the news about the graves removal for the past two weeks now. So when they read the news about Mrs. Quinn’s joint burial, they wouldn’t feel strange about it.
According to the “Grande Schedule” that was currently managed by Louise, this afternoon’s burial ceremony was the last one. Based on the normal business of the Grande House in the past, it was estimated that life in the future would be very relaxing.
The phone rang. It was the phone on Louise’s desk. Zach sat down in the reception room, at Louise’s desk, holding a wine glass. Louise placed potted plants on the side of the table. It actually enclosed a small independent space. Zach was in a good mood, and the idea of actually preparing an office for Louise flashed past his mind.
Zach picked up the phone.
“Hey! Grande! Do you have time!”
Zach heard the voice of the man in his fifties and smiled.
“Warden Vincent, for you, I always have time.”
“Haha! Grande, you guys are doing pretty good lately! I don’t know if you are still interested in working with a poor partner like us again!”
“Of course!” Zac took a sip of wine. Two months ago, this was one of Zach’s only two stable clients- the prison.
“That’s a great relief!” The other party’s relieved voice came from the receiver, “Now we can continue to save a lot of money! And improve the food quality for the prisoners!”
Zach’s eyes squinted, how much money could a minimum standard funeral save? As for food quality, hehe… Zach just thought that this guy’s unconcealed greed was direct enough.
However, this was good for the previous Grande Funeral Home, because the funeral industry at that time belonged to the municipal government, and the Grande Funeral Home was actually living in seclusion! They needed a stable partner, and the directness of this warden made Grande, who actually depended on the city hall’s money to survive, like him very much. Grande was not interested in the money he paid, he just needed to maintain a good business record.
“Warden, you don’t need to call in person, just find someone to inform us.” Zach smiled, and didn’t go on with the ridiculous explanation.
“How can I do that!” The other party’s voice rose, “You have changed your number, and I haven’t called yet! I must do it myself! And get familiar with the number!”
Zach smiled and shook his head. If he hadn’t known the person, he would’ve been completely fooled by the other party’s words, thinking he was a gallant person. We all knew that it was easiest for a person to pretend to be the opposite of oneself.
“Warden, are we still following the same old process? Tell us the time, so we can go there to get the bodies.”
“Ah!… not this!” The other party’s background voice was a bit messy, and there seemed to be a sound of file flipping, “yes, this is the one! Don’t urge me!”
Zach was speechless, who urged him.
“Okay, so this is what happened. A document suddenly came down from the city, saying that because of the privatization of the funeral business, we need to find a funeral home ourselves and sign a contract with them! You see, I thought of you guys the first!”
Zach’s lips were leaning against the transparent wine glass. The other party would really save a lot of money this time.
“You have already said yes! You can’t go back now!” The other party’s sound came from the receiver.
Zach raised his eyebrows, “Of course. Warden, do you want to discuss this in detail with us face to face?”
“Too much trouble, I will send you the contract, you can sign it and then send it back!” The person said in the receiver.
“Okay.” Zach didn’t care that much; just like the cooperation between the mill and the Barton Southern District Police Department, he also didn’t pay attention to the content of the contract.
Although the contract provider was the police station and the prison, in fact, the real client was the municipal government. They were just the departments under the jurisdiction of the Barton municipal government. Most of the content in the contract could be confirmed by Anthony. So Zach really didn’t need to care much. He just called Anthony to confirm this.
After hanging up the phone, Zach returned to the office and called Anthony.
“Anthony.” The voice in the receiver sounded like someone was still chewing food. Zach called Anthony’s private line. No one who knew this number would make any comments on the mayor’s behavior of answering the phone while eating.
“It’s me, Anthony.” Zach didn’t say much. The conversation between him and Anthony was usually very direct. “I received a call from the warden of Barton Prison about the contract between the prison and funeral homes. Is there such a thing?”
“Mhm.” Anthony gave a muffled reply. He quickly chewed and swallowed, and then continued, “This is just an idea, I want you to control those souls who are bound to go to hell, and then use…”
Before Anthony had finished speaking, Zach raised his eyebrows, “Oh…” He drawled. The vampire really didn’t expect this. Compared with the sudden increase of business recently, the presence of the prison business was too low.
“Oh, Anthony! What am I gonna do without you?” Not long ago, Zach was still trying to figure out a way to develop the relationship between the Grande family and Crowlie to the next stage. Now the Grande had the upper hand.
“Uh, don’t celebrate too early.” Anthony knew what Zach was thinking. After a moment of silence, and the sound of eating came from the receiver again, “You still have a lot of things to do. Don’t let Vincent mess this up.”
“Mhm, he won’t.” Zach smiled and nodded. It seemed that he needed to pay Vincent a visit.
“One more thing.” Anthony’s voice had some doubts. After he had a strange pause, the crunchy and crispy sound of chewing vegetables was passed into Zach’s ears. At this moment, Zach couldn’t help but think, ‘Anthony finally started to pay attention to his health, not bad’.
“Crowlie came by yesterday.” Anthony organized the language, “There was no progress, but when she was about to leave, something happened. She said that one of her men died.”
“Oh.” Zach smiled, “James finally became useful.”
“You didn’t hear it clearly.” Not knowing what kind of funny thing Anthony was thinking, there was even joy in his tone when he continued, “Died. It was the real kind of death where the soul disappeared completely.”
Zach frowned. “Died? How did it die? Who did it?”
From those three continuous questions, Anthony could confirm that it was not Zach who did it. Before hanging up, he said, “How would I know? Anyway, you need to be careful. Whoever the person was, it definitely wasn’t a nobody.”
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